People were being given a chance to make Shakespeare their own, and in the magnificent Globe theatre no less, who were not usually given this chance. And they were being given the chance to do so on their own terms, in ways that resonated with them

The Faction theatre company and Selfridges have come together to create a production that makes the work of William Shakespeare very accessible and engaging. Elements including fashion, social media and tabloids are effectively incorporated to provide parallels to modern times.

Did Shakespeare gain experience of the real estate world during his lost years (1588 - 1592) through some sort of commercial or legal apprenticeship, or did he draw on first-hand knowledge gained once he started to make his way in London as a writer? What we do know is that Shakespeare had first-hand experience of a particularly combative lease renewal which threatened the very source of his own prosperity.

I was born into a musical family in North Carolina. Music ushered me into life quite literally because my dad was playing the Irish fiddle in the delivery room when I was born. I began singing in our family band The Tune Mammals at the age of 2. When my dad gave me my first guitar lesson at the age of 12, I immediately started making up my own songs. I never took to the piano, but when I picked up the guitar, I found a vehicle to express my inner voice as a songwriter.

This was a special production, too, in that the parts of Shakespeare's 'Mechanicals', the working men of Athens who stage the play-within-a-play at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding feast, were played by actors from local amateur dramatic groups in each region visited by the tour, and the parts of fairy attendants being played by local schoolchildren.

Not to lay it on with a trowel, but... when we talk of towers of strength; or sea changes; or pounds of flesh; or pomp and circumstance; or the dogs of war - or even the Queen's English, then it's Shakespeare!

I'm not alone. A new report by the British Council reveals that 34% of the UK can't stand the Bard. So why don't more of us say so? This silent suffering has become middle England's last taboo. The world might think we adore Shakespeare, our supposed national icon. But we don't: you can have him.

It seems remarkable that one man's legacy can still be having such a cultural impact on a nation 400 years after his death. But Shakespeare is no ordinary literary figure, with his work still being seen as a benchmark of the written word across the globe.

Perhaps it's because he was also responsible for so much of our literary history that we consider him mandatory for our offsprings' education, but surely no writer in the English language has ever written such beautifully obscene poems, plays and passages.

Benedict's Hamlet is sarcastic, mean, aloof to his girlfriend and vicious to his mother. He also hams up the supposed mental illness for all its worth, causing much laughter in the auditorium as his Hamlet mocks himself up as a toy soldier brought to life just to confuse and baffle those around him.

What is so insufferable about the sticklers is that they will brook no argument. They primly purse their mouths. They stop you mid-anecdote and then they trot out this mealy-mouthed line that they have been using for decades and decades: "I think you mean 'fewer' rather than 'less."

Shakespeare's classic tale becomes The Merchant of the Venetian as director Rupert Goold replaces the play's traditional setting of Venice with the casino floors and glitzy lights of Las Vegas, complete with Elvis impersonators, Vegas showgirls and even Cirque de Soleil-style gymnasts.

Anthony Sher is the star casting as Falstaff and, of course, he is superb. Everything about his performance is superb - the delivery, the warmth, Falstaff's arrogance and his manipulation of those around him, and that great speech on the eve of war on the perversity of honour is moving and powerful.

I was paradoxically condemned to be both pretentious and a philistine. I was both too smart and too dumb. I was, ultimately, just plain old wrong. My family's condemnations were, much like A Midsummer Night's Dream, rather bland and confusing.

Our bodies are cleverer than our minds. When we are truly tired, we will fall asleep. Sleeping is a natural action. You don't have to do anything to get to sleep. It is not humanly possible to stay awake forever. The one topic that mustn't be on one's list of worries is sleep itself. That is what can stop you from sleeping and make you ill, both physically and psychologically.